again to Matthew chapter 10. In this chapter, as we read just
a few minutes ago, we have the call of the 12 apostles of the
Lord and the Lord sending them out in power to work miracles
and to preach the gospel. But I want us to look for just
a few minutes tonight at verse 34. Matthew 10 and verse 34. Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. I have two parts to the message. First of all, let's think about
that is, our Lord's use of the words peace and sword. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. One of the titles that was given
unto him in prophecy, one of the very familiar titles, is
Prince of Peace. In Isaiah chapter nine and verse
six, where the prophet said unto us, A child is born unto us,
a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. I came not to send
peace. That's his name, the Prince of
Peace, one of his titles. The Apostle Paul, Writing to
the church at Colossae, he says that the Lord Jesus Christ, having
made peace through the blood of his cross. Peter, in the house
of Cornelius, when the gospel was first introduced to the Gentiles,
he said, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 10,
The apostle quotes a prophecy from Isaiah. How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. A believer
in the gospel of Luke is referred to as the son of peace. And one
of our very familiar texts of scriptures, Romans chapter five
and verse one, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews, when the Lord
Jesus Christ was born into this world now just over 2,000 years
ago, the Jews had been taught to expect a Messiah, an anointed
one, who would bring peace and prosperity to their nation. And that's what they were looking
for. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they spoke to
the Lord, not recognizing who he was. They said, we trusted
that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. The type of redemption they were
looking for was not personal redemption from sin. They were
not looking for a messiah to redeem individuals from sin,
but they were rather looking for a messiah to deliver their
nation from foreign rule, to make their nation great once
again, as it had been in the days of David and Solomon. And here our Lord says, I did
not come to send peace. Not the peace they were expecting.
I did not come to send peace, but a sword. I want us to look,
there's four passages of scripture where the Lord Jesus Christ uses
the word sword or swords. This is one of them here in Matthew
chapter 10, but I want us to look at the other three places
as well to get a good understanding of what he meant when he said,
I came not to send peace, but a sword. Look with me, keep your
places here if you will, but look with me to Luke chapter
21. In Luke chapter 21, the Lord is
speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, which we know took
place in 70 A.D. And here in verses 23 and 24,
he said, but woe unto them that are with child and to them that
give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress
in the land and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by
the edge of the sword. This is one place where he used
the word sword. Speaking of the destruction,
the overthrow of Jerusalem, and how men would be destroyed by
the sword. They shall fall by the edge of
the sword. Here it is used as an instrument
of war, the sword is. So there, Our Lord is speaking
of literal swords, literal swords, swords that men could hold in
their hands and warriors could use to destroy their enemies
to fight their battles. Look with me in the next chapter
of Luke, chapter 22 and verse 35. And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse,
now we read about that in Matthew chapter 10. Part of that chapter
when the Lord sent those 12 apostles out, he told them not to take
script, not to take a purse or shoes, but now he's asking them,
when I sent you out without purse and script and shoes, liked you
anything? And they answered, nothing, nothing. You supplied all of our needs. We did not need to carry anything
with us when you sent us out. Then said he unto them, but now,
but now, he that hath a purse, let him take it. And likewise,
script, and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and
buy one. For I say unto you, now you've
got to see the Lord is contrasting what took place when he sent
the apostles out the first time and now what he tells them is
going to take place when he sends them out after his crucifixion
and resurrection to preach the gospel in all the world. For I say unto you, that this
that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was reckoned among
the transgressors for the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold,
now remember, here's 11 men, here's 11 disciples that he's
speaking to. Judas is not among them at this
time. Lord, Behold, here are two swords. Really? Two swords. Is that enough? Is that enough? Two swords that you could hold
on to and how to scabbard. We have two swords, Lord. And
the Lord said, that's enough. That's enough. In other words,
clearly he's not speaking of them buying a sword when he said
above this, but now he that hath a purse,
let him take it and likewise his script and he that hath no
sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. He's not telling
his disciples here to go down to the gun store and buy swords. That's not it at all. Because
if he had met literal swords here, when he told them to buy
one, there's no way that two would have been sufficient for
11. All right, let's go to another place. In John chapter 18, this is the
third place. In John chapter 18, in verses
10 and 11, This is when they came into the
Garden of Gethsemane to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ. The night
before he was crucified, verse 10 says, then Simon Peter, having
a sword, drew it. As I thought about this text
and this message, I thought, wouldn't you know it? If there
were only two swords among those 11 men, Simon Peter was going
to have one of them. He was going to have one of them,
and he was going to use it. And he cuts the servant of the
high priest's ear off, but he was aiming for his head. But
this is a literal sword here. Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it and smote the high priest's servant and cut off his right
ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put
up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? It's obvious that sometimes when
the Lord uses the word sword, it's not to be taken literally. Sometimes it was. But here in
our text, he doesn't speak of a literal sword, I came not to
send peace, but a sword. Now that's the kind of Messiah
that the Jewish nation had been taught to believe would come. No, that's not the kind of Messiah
that Jesus Christ is. That's not the kind of Christ,
the anointed of God, that he is, the son of man, is not come
to destroy men's lives. This is what he said. If that
was a literal sword, I came not to send peace, but a sword, if
he was talking about a literal sword, then that would be to
destroy physical lives. But the Son of Man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them, to save them. The scripture says he's come
to seek and to save that which is lost. The sword then. He said, I came not to send peace,
but a sword. What does he mean? It's the sword
of the spirit. It's not a literal sword. It's
the sword of the spirit, which is what? The word of God. Look with me in Ephesians 6,
where we have the apostle speaking of what we call the Christian's
armor. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning
with verse 13. And this is written to Christians,
to believers, to you, if you're a child of God, to myself. This
is what we are to do. We're to take unto us the whole
armor of God. You take it. You take it. Take unto you the whole armor
of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and
having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of
righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace, above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and
take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit. I came not to bring peace, but
to send a sword. Here is the sword that he was
speaking of. It is the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God. You know, in 1 Peter chapter
one, the last part of that chapter there, the apostle Peter wrote,
and he quoted an Old Testament text, I believe from the book
of Isaiah, And he said, this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. The gospel is the word of God. The word of God is the gospel. And this is the sword that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to send, the sword of the spirit. And
after his resurrection, we know he did commission these 12 or
the 11 disciples to go into all the world. And what were they
to do? To make friends? To form orphanages? Build hospitals? Those kinds
of works are good, aren't they? We could never say anything bad
about that or those things, but he commissioned his preachers
to preach the word, to preach the gospel. He came to send the
sword, and he has sent the sword out into all the world. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Whosoever believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall
be damned. The sword of the spirit, that's
the sword that he came to send. Many times this sword, which
is the word of God, the gospel, many times it's referred to as
a two-edged sword. Two-edged sword. And I understand
by that, this sword, it both kills and makes alive. It both kills and makes alive,
the word of God. Hannah, in her prayer in 1 Samuel,
she mentioned this. when she said that the sword,
or rather, he bringeth, the Lord killeth and maketh alive. He
bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. And the Lord always
kills before he makes alive. And how does he kill? With this
sword. God, the Holy Spirit, blessing
the word of God, shows us what we are. We all have a great opinion
of ourselves and of our ability. We all do. We're born with that.
And yet the word of God comes to us as one side of the sword
tells us, there's none good. No, not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that seek it after
God. They're all gone out of the way. And the word of God, the sword
of the spirit is doing its work, right? It's first of all killing. But then the other side of the
sword maketh alive. That is the gospel message of
Christ. That is, there's a savior. There's a bomb in Gilead. The great physician has come,
the sympathizing Jesus. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. The second thing I wanted to
bring out about a sword is the work of a sword separates. Now,
our text here is Matthew chapter 10 and verse 34. Think not that
I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. I want you to look at the parallel
text in the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 12 and verse 51. Luke 12 and verse 51, suppose
ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay. Now this is where in Matthew
it says, I came not to send peace, but a sword, but what does it
say here? It tells us nay, but rather division. The sword cuts, the sword divides,
the word of God divides, it separates. I think at least two times in
the Gospel of John we are told there was a division among the
people because of him, because of Christ. There's a division
always in this world among the people because of Christ. There
are those who are with him and there are those who are against
him and there's no middle ground. That's what he said. No man can
serve two masters. We're either for Christ or against
Christ. The word of God causes division. This, if you turn back now to
Matthew, this is what we see here in the context. A man's
foes shall be they of his own household. Let's look here in verse 35.
For I am come to set a man at variance, against his father
and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. This variance, this division
is brought about by the sword of the spirit or the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This variance is a war. It's
a spiritual battle. Now, We know that we are in a
battle, we know that. Every child of God. We're in
a spiritual battle and we have three primary enemies, that is
our own flesh, that old man, the world, and Satan. I was looking, if you turn to
2 Corinthians chapter 6 with me, what are the weapons of our
warfare? They're not carnal. The Apostle
Paul tells us they're not carnal. the weapons of our warfare. But
here, in 2 Corinthians 6, in verse 6, he's speaking about
himself. And he was a warrior, wasn't
he? The Apostle Paul? He was in this battle for sure.
But notice the weapons that he mentions here, in verse 6. Pureness. Pureness, first of all. Devotion
to Christ. in our lives. That's the first
thing he mentions, pureness. The second is knowledge, teaching
the truth in love, he wrote to the church at Ephesus. It's one
thing to have the truth, it's something else to teach the truth,
and it's something else to teach the truth in love. this knowledge. The third thing
is long-suffering. There's a weapons that we were
to use in this battle, long-suffering, patience when we are provoked. And the fourth is kindness, a
gentle manner of temper. And then he mentions fifth, the
Holy Ghost, which surely has reference to the fruit of the
Spirit of God that is mentioned or named in Galatians chapter
five. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
temperance, goodness, faith. And then lastly, love, unfeigned
love. These are the weapons of our
warfare. Now let me close with these three
words of encouragement to everyone who is involved in this spiritual
warfare. The first one is found in Isaiah
54 and verse 17. God said, no weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper. Every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. No weapon that
is formed against a child of God will prosper. The third verse is in Zechariah
4 and verse 6, because when we think about being in a warfare
and we're naturally weak, we have no strength. The Lord Jesus,
he said, without me, you can do nothing. We recognize that. In Zechariah, we are told, it's
not by might. It's not by might. It's not by
power. But it is rather by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. The battle is the Lord's, isn't
it? The battle is the Lord. And the
last verse is 1 John 4 and verse 4. Greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. Who is that? That's God, the
Holy Spirit, isn't it? Greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. The spirit of this world we know
is Satan, but the Holy Spirit lives in every child of God and
he is greater. than the spirit that is in this
world. I pray the Lord will bless this
word. I started thinking about that
text especially, I came not to send peace but a sword. This
time of the year, people talk about the birth of Christ, coming
into this world, but so very few people understand, even begin
to understand why he came into this world. And many think that
he came to establish world peace, you know? No, he came to reconcile
men unto God. We have peace with God. but only
through his blood, only through his righteousness, do we have
peace with him. All right, Bill, if you will,
come and lead us in another hymn.